2006 - Eurovision and the Vremya-reka album

His winning streak does not end here however. On March 14th 2006, Dima attended the International Music Awards ceremony Zolotaya Sharmanka (The Golden Street Organ) in Kiev, where he was named Singer of the Year.

In mid-March 2006, Dima was chosen internally by Channel One to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Athens, Greece. Out of 37 participating countries, he came in second place with the dark pop song Never Let You Go, in this way equalling one of Russia’s best performances at Eurovision delivered by Alsou in 2000, when she finished the competition as the runner-up with her song Solo.

Dima’s stage performance dazzled the audiences as halfway through the song a dancer emerged from the white piano covered in red rose petals, while ballerinas were dancing in the background. Dima had the number of his entry inscribed on his white shirt: 13 for the semi-final and 10 for the final. As Russia achieved a modest result the previous year, Dima had to qualify for the final, which he did with flying colours. In the semi-final on May 18th, he secured his place for the final by finishing third with 217 points, well within the top ten.

Dima’s Eurovision hit Never Let You Go catapulted him to stardom and became top of the radio and TV charts in Russia in May 2006. The song managed to stay at the top of the charts for an incredible period of 24 weeks. It also proved to be an international success as in October 2006 the single was released in Greece and Cyprus and made it into the top 10 there. The single was also later released in a number of other European countries.

This success was followed in the same year by the release of his new album Vremya-Reka (Time is a river), which sold over 2 million copies in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States and was awarded a platinum record.

His superstar status was confirmed in 2006 when he was invited to be one of the four artists performing in The Red Summer show, Russia’s biggest music event of the year. The show took place in Moscow’s Red Square in July 2006 and also featured Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas and t.A.T.u.

September 2006 saw Dima win the Best Male Singer and Best Song for a second time in a row at the MTV Russian Music Awards.

Later that year he represented Russia at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Copenhagen.

On November 15th 2006, Dima attended the World Music Awards ceremony in London where he performed alongside giants of the music industry such as Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado and Bob Sinclair. He did not leave the British capital empty-handed as he received the award for Best Selling Russian Artist. During the show he performed the Eurovision hit Never Let you Go and this was broadcasted on UK’s Channel 4 and in over 130 countries, including the US. In January 2007, Dima toured the US and held concerts in New York, Los Angeles, San-Francisco, Miami and Chicago with each show attracting over 3000 spectators.

In January 2006 Dima participated in the Milan Fashion Week as a celebrity guest of the Dsquared2 show.